Babylonian Talmud

The Babylonian Talmud is a compilation of rabbinic discussion of the Mishnah, containing legal argument, interpretation and stories in HebrewHebrewA Northwest Semitic language in the Canaanite group, with ancient and modern forms.Glossary · Click to read the explanation and AramaicAramaicA group of Northwest Semitic language varieties with a long history across the Near East.Glossary · Click to read the explanation. It took shape in a Jewish setting in late-antique MesopotamiaMesopotamiaA historical region associated with the Tigris and Euphrates, home to many societies and civilisations.Glossary · Click to read the explanation; it was not authored by one person in one identifiable year. ^[1]

Scholars distinguish earlier material from its compilation and editing. A chapter by Monika Amsler notes that proposed dates for a final redaction range from the sixth century CE to later disputed dates. The Ashmedai and shamir tale is in Gittin 68a–b: it is a Talmudic witness to a story about Solomon, not a writing from the king's own era. ^[1][2]